Process of leaching copper ores.



j. J. NELSN.

PROCESS 0F LEACHING CPPER DRES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2s. 1918.

E s I II I I II I8 U I9 @C Patented Deo. 30, 1919.

IUNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

JOI-IN J'. NELRSON, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOIR, 0F ONE-FOURTH T0 OLUF H. WESTERGARD AND ONE-FOURTH TO BRYANT MATHEWS, BOTH 0F LOS ANGELES,

' CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS 0F LEACHING COPPER GRES.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Deo. 30, 1919.

Application iile March 26, 1918. Serial N 0. 224,912.

To all 'whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN J. NELSON, a citizen of the United States', residing at Los Angeles, in the count of' Los Angelgs and State of California, ave invented a ,new and useful `Process of Leaching Copper Cres, of which the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to the art of recovering copper from copper ores, and'particularly from carbonate, oxid, and silica ores which contain sulfate of copper.

In the operation of my process I prepare a leaching solution which consists of seventy-seven (77) parts'of sodium bisulfate and twenty-three (23) parts of sodium chlorid. Sodium bisulfate and sodium chlorid.

are dissolved in water, using one hundred and sixty-seven (167) gallons of water tothe ton of ore tobe treated and using seventy-seven one hundredths (.77) pounds of Vsodium bisulfateand twenty-three one hundredths (.23) `pounds of sodium chlorid to each pound of copper to be extracted.

The ore is rst ground so that it will pass a sixteen mesh screen and the ore, with the leaching solution, is put into the leaching tanks in which the mixture is agitated durin the extraction.

uch a leaching tank is illustrated in the annexed drawing in which Figure l is a vertical'section and Fig. 2 is a plan view.

This tank consists of a frame 11 .carryin bearings 12 in which a shaft 13 turns. Tle shaft 13 carries a bevel pinion 14 meshing with` a bevel gear 15 which is fixed to a shaftv 16. Carried on the shaft 16 is a frame work 17 supporting paddles 18. These padfuric acid. In the case of ore containing y an excess of lime I prefer to add from one to two per cent. muriatic acid. n

After the reaction in the leaching tank 1s ,completed I filter the solution and pass it to a precipitating tank containing steel, preferably in a finely divided condition, for the purpose of precipitating the copper. In the precipitating tank I add not less than twenty (20) pounds of sodium chlorid per ton of solution to the copper solution for the purpose of preventing the copper from adhering to the steel. The copper appears as in the form of a precipitate in the bottom of the precipitating tank from which it may be readily removed.

What 4I claim is A process of extracting copper from ores containing copper sulfate, which comprises leaching the ore with a solution containing sodium bisulfate and sodium chlorid, filtering the gangue from the solution after the ore has been subjected to the action of the solution for some time, passing said solution into a precipitating tank containing iron in a .finely divided condition, adding sodiumI 19th day of March, 1918.

JOHN J. NELSON. 

